Rangers equipment manager Joe Devenney of Mahopac will retire after 37 years with the organization. / Frank Becerra Jr. / The Journal News

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Journal News columnist

GREENBURGH - Scott Devenney knows he will have some big shoes to fill next year. But what he will actually have to fill is a 60-foot cube truck and an air mattress.

Scott's father, Joe Devenney, has worked his last game as the Rangers' equipment transfer coordinator, which, loosely translated, means "the guy who makes it all possible at Madison Square Garden."

Joe Devenney, of Mahopac - he proudly pronounces it "Ma-HO-pac," and he'll sing the high school fight song in which it is pronounced that way - is retiring after 37 years of handling equipment for the Rangers and every visiting NHL team.

Glamorous? Oh, yeah. This is a typical day: Get in the truck in the middle of the afternoon, drive alone in heavy traffic to Newark or La Guardia airport, wait for the arrival of the visiting team's charter flight (which often is delayed or gets re-routed to the other airport), drive onto the tarmac, unload (alone, most of the time) the equipment that fills every inch of the truck's cargo space, drive through rush-hour traffic back to the Garden, wait for that night's Knicks game or whatever event is going on to end and everybody to clear out (usually 11 p.m. or midnight or later), unload the truck, do the visiting team's laundry and sometimes the Rangers' laundry, sleep on the air mattress in the tiny skate-sharpening room, wake up with MSG's daily 5:30 a.m. fire-alarm test, and set up both locker rooms for that day's morning skate and game, work both locker rooms during the game, unload the visitor's locker room back onto the truck, etc.

All with a smile and the idea that this is the best job in the world.

"I had the best of both worlds," Joe Devenney, 62, said. "I know all the Rangers and at some time or another I've met every player in the league."

In the old days, he'd be in charge of opening and closing the bench door during games, and he's taken pucks off the melon, and has scars to prove it. He has literally snipped sutures while doctors stitched players' faces.

One story is about an old Washington defenseman in the 1970s, Jack Lynch, who had his facial bones and teeth broken by a puck during a game, and as doctors and dentists worked on him, Lynch was calling for the equipment guys to make him some sort of mask so he could go back and play.

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"You had a lot of respect for guys like that," Devenney said.

He's made thousands of friends, from Rangers foes such as Paul Holmgren and Dave Poulin, Denis Potvin and Mike Bossy, to coaches, GMs and Rangers such as Mark Pavelich (whom he still visits in the summer).

He had special relationships with coaches such as Herb Brooks, and Tom Renney, and John Tortorella (in his first stint as an assistant). Mike Keenan, while Chicago's coach, took Devenney aside to offer condolences when his first wife died.

During tough times like that, Devenney said with tears in his eyes, he has learned how much Glen Sather cares and does for people behind the scenes.

Henrik Lundqvist holds him in high regard and recalled Devenney taking the truck one off-day to Ikea to help furnish the rookie's new apartment.

"He was there right away to help me, and I'll never forget that," Lundqvist said.

For his last home game, Mark Messier, Brian Leetch and Adam Graves sent taped well-wishes, Messier talking about what an honor it was to know him.

Visiting teams have brought him gifts this season, and after Pittsburgh's last visit, Sidney Crosby, before boarding the bus, waited by the freight elevator to shake his hand and say goodbye.

The current team had a surprise party for Devenney this past winter, at a famous New York steakhouse. A blizzard covered the city that day, and yet there was 100 percent attendance.

Devenney, a Vietnam vet and former lineman for New York State Electric and Gas, told of the team flying in from a road trip and going directly to Uniondale for a game the next night. He was sitting in a hotel ballroom having a meal with the entire team and staff, including locker-room guy (and noted New York City hockey coach) Tom Horvath, the only Ranger employee longer than Devenney, with 52 years in.

"I must have had that 1,000-yard stare going," Devenney said, "because Tom all of a sudden says, 'Joe, Joe, where are you right now?' And where I was, I was trying to figure out how I was in that room, what was the journey in life that brought me to this room with the New York Rangers. I'm just a kid who was born in the city. How did I get into this room? I'm still amazed. I still don't know if I have the right answer, how I actually got there."

He's been through seven GMs, 27 coaches (some of them twice).

And now Scott, a locker-room attendant (and an assistant hockey coach for Somers/North Salem High) takes over. He has thought, at times, that his dad was "insane" for the hours he worked and the nights he spent in that little skate room.

"He left his air mattress for me," said Scott, who can't wait to sleep on it.